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You can almost hear the scalpels being sharpened on the Lido as critics gather their most vitriolic remarks.Roman Polanski’s verdict is out palaceThe film premiered at the 80th annual Venice Film Festival last weekend to extremely poor reviews. Polanski’s latest work, Variety, said: “A laughless disaster.” This dark comedy follows hotel guests at a New Year’s Eve party, starring John Cleese and Mickey Rourke. The Guardian wrote: “A horrific, weak hotel farce.” The Times said it was a “dazzling atrocity.” The Financial Times called it “a series of extremely unfunny jokes.”
palace It has landed on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, where it received a shocking zero score. It’s a humiliating honor for the 90-year-old director, who has made his mark with ” Repulsion and Chinatown.
For a director whose work is now mired in reputation, these comments are perhaps an inevitable consequence. In 1977, Polanski pleaded guilty to “unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor” but fled the United States to avoid a prison sentence. His continued respect from the film industry – he was awarded France’s César for Best Director in 2020 – has been a source of embarrassment and anger for some time.and palace, Polanski gives us a way out: we no longer need to defend movies.
Critics, however, may have done Polanski a favor. Everyone loves failure. The more exciting the hysteria surrounding the poor quality of the artwork is, the more confident you feel in viewing it. There’s nothing more boring than a three-star criticism, the polite acknowledgment that something is, for the most part, an anodyne. Comments are only interesting when they’re polarizing: tell me something you love or hate.
Lately, criticism has become a less vitriolic art. As industries become more corporate and authoritarian, reviewers are less free to express their ideas. This is especially true for fashion criticism (a field I’ve been working in for five years). Dominated by a handful of luxury giants, one bad review could find one’s “access” brutally restricted. I’m still banned from a house in Paris that had a bad review years ago. I don’t have any relationship with the designer yet. Is it worth it? I thought, then on second thought, no.
Likewise, the film industry, with its grand openings and studio conviviality, fosters a more tacit critical environment. palace Acting as a convenient pressure valve for frustrated critics to vent their frustrations. Critical defeat only really happens when the underdog is unprepared: it’s easier to pick up an indie film whose director has been canceled than to pick up a big, mediocre movie from a powerful studio Much more.
Nonetheless, the critic’s role still has a role to play. They can still reset public opinion and guide future sentiment.Last month, he was heavily criticized for his decision to wear a prosthetic nose to play Leonard Bernstein in the biopic GrandmasterBradley Cooper has emerged from Venice as an all-conquering director. The actor-director – and his prosthetics – were praised for his “magical” portrayal of the artist, with the film sporting a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92%.
Woody Allen attends this year’s Venice Film Festival © Alamy
It was also curious to watch Woody Allen, 87, shuffle down the red carpet to defend disgraced Spanish soccer boss Luis Rubiales. Despite its poor reputation, Allen’s latest film, “French” a stroke of luckis still hailed by many critics as his best film in years.
This year, critics decided to give Allen a pass: The director has been shunned by the industry since the #MeToo movement because of accusations of child molestation against his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, which he has always denied. Sure, the movie is actually pretty good, but few critics will parse a movie solely on its merits. Most people will learn about the local cultural environment before partying.
I rarely pay attention to criticism, at least until I see something with my own eyes.But even I can’t help but want to see it Grandmaster, A movie I already dismissed because it looked like a TV matinee. As a lifelong cultural contrarian, I take pleasure in despising the things that others love. Likewise, a one-star review indicates that a work stirs up so many emotions that there must be something to talk about.
In my opinion, the greatest artists – like Lars von Trier, David Lynch or Jane Campion – create works that are either on the verge of triumph or complete failure. I would rather watch 10 Roman Polanski movies than watch one Marvel movie. (Okay, that’s a little untrue, because I love some of the Spider-Verse.)
Aside from watching the horrifically bizarre madness, One Star Alliance is noble company for artists trying new things.Performance waiting for godot After its English premiere in 1955, it was dismissed as an “ugly little squirt of swamp gas”.This 1979 movie apocalypse now Considered “intellectually empty”. nutcracker In 1892, Moscow audiences thought the ballet was ridiculous, and even its composer described it as “rather boring.” (To be fair, they have a point.)
Five Star shows are great for reflecting the values and vanities of the times we live in. But the one-star show gives us a glimpse into the darker, more subversive, and ultimately more interesting hallmarks of the era.
Email Joe: jo.ellison@ft.com
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